NCRI – Iraq’s National Security Advisor, Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie, continues propagating false information on the state of Camp Ashraf in Iraqi state TV, Al-Iraqieh and other media outlets such as Al-Arabieh TV. Meanwhile, cruel restrictions are imposed on members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) who are residing in Ashraf and at the same time with Nowrouz celebrations (the Iranian New Year beginning March 21). The lawyers of Ashraf residents are still barred to see their clients and international delegations and journalists are not allowed to Ashraf. The check point facilities which controlled people, vehicles and other supplies entering the Camp have been taken over by Iraqi forces. The facilities were built six years ago at the entrance of Ashraf and have been under the control of Iraqi soldiers for the past two weeks.
The situation until 12:00 midnight on Thursday, March19, is as follows:
1- At each of three entrances to the facilities a Humvee military vehicle and soldiers holding M1 guns are stationed. The premises house hundreds of Ashraf residents, many of whom women. These facilities were built by the PMOI and with their own funds.
2- As it was mentioned in a statement by the International Committee of Jurists in Defense of Ashraf (ICJDA) on March 17, the ban on visits to Ashraf by delegations of parliamentarians and human rights organizations, jurists and lawyers still continues. Dozens of delegations and political personalities from the United States, Canada and the European countries have been waiting for their visas to go to Iraq and visit Ashraf for the past three months.
3- Journalists are still barred and those who had gone to Ashraf in recent days have been turned away by Iraqi forces.
4- The check and control facility built by Ashraf residents at the entrance to the Camp has been taken over by the Iraqi forces. The complex has been employed for security checks of people, supplies and vehicles entering Ashraf to prevent explosives and car bombs going into the camp and protect the residents from bombings, IEDs (Improvised explosive device) and terrorist attacks. The effectiveness of this security system set up by the PMOI was proven time and again and there has been not a single fault in its operations over the past six years, particularly during major gatherings, despite terrorist plots by the clerical regime and its terrorist Qods force.
5- A delegation of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) visited Ashraf yesterday. The delegation was informed about the restrictions imposed on Ashraf and spoke to inhabitants of the facilities including the individuals who were assaulted by Iraqi forces and threatened to be extradited to the Iranian regime.
6- Al-Rubaie spreads lies and disseminates false information about Ashraf residents. On March 16, in a derogatory statement he claimed that the area of Ashraf is 400 square km, much bigger than they need for 3,400 people.
7- In the same statement he claimed that there has not been any mistreatment of Ashraf residents, however, the Reuters news agency quoted an official of the Iraqi Interior Ministry as saying, “Iraqi troops beat residents before U.S. forces helping guard the camp stepped in.”
8- In a separate statement, the office of the National Security Advisor on March 14 said, “The leaders of Camp Ashraf have refused to allow a committee from the Ministry of Human Rights to conduct its duty to establish the residents’ choice to return to Iran or leave for a third country.”
The same issue was also a lie since the Ashraf residents on 25 and 26 February did their utmost to cooperate with the delegation from Iraqi Human Rights Ministry which at the outset proclaimed that they wanted to interview Ashraf residents. They were accommodated in buildings and caravans provided for the delegation. The same group in two days privately spoke with 168 people without the presence of any other PMOI members. In all the interviews the U.S. army officers were present as observers. A delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were also visiting Ashraf on the same dates and observed the interviews and the method in which they were conducted. It is worthy of note that UNAMI was informed of the same process. The interviews were supposed to continue after the weekend which followed February 26. However they were stopped abruptly. All Ashraf residents had voluntarily agreed to take part in the sessions. The U.S. and Iraqi officials and related international bodies, stationed at the Camp, were all informed of the repeated inquiries of the Ashraf residents about the continuation of the interviews. Such allegations that “leaders of the Camp” ordered the stop of the interviews are sheer lies. Al-Rubaie was disappointed of a NO answer coming from the PMOI members to return to Iran ruled by clerical dictatorship. Now, if an individual wants to quit the ranks of the Resistance on his own free will and not by force and intimidation, he can do so and go about his own personal life. As a principle, the PMOI has never stopped such people and has provided assistance to them.
9- In an interview with the Iranian regime’s Arab-language television on March 8, Rubaie, spoke of a “painful process of detoxification of Ashraf residents”. Faced with international condemnation over the unlawful and unjust “bilateral agreement” with the Iranian regime on the fate of Ashraf residents, Rubaie last night once again came out with a new ploy in remarks aired by the al-Arabiya television. He spoke of the “bribing of some Iraqi politicians and organizations by the residents of Ashraf”. The National Security Advisor is infuriated with the widespread support of Iraqi nationalist and democratic forces – Shiite and Sunni alike – for the PMOI and their condemnation of his suppressive measures against the residents of Ashraf. He therefore wants, through such plots and threats, to scare forces who are not willing to bow to the domination of Iraq by the mullahs’ Supreme Leader into not supporting the PMOI. The list of 32,000 Iraqis who are on the payroll of the mullahs, with the details of their bank accounts and the funds they receive, which had been exposed by the Iranian Resistance in Europe is available and Mr. Rubaie knows the identity of many of these people. His silence about the downed Iranian drone and about the terrorist attacks against Ashraf residents is clear evidence of his unwavering efforts to whitewash the mullahs’ crimes in Iraq and conceal evidence of their meddling.
10- It has at times been claimed that the siege of the facility was because “the protection unit wanted to be based there [but] the Mojahedin went on hunger strike and caused problems”. This claim is untrue. It is an excuse for suppressing the residents of Ashraf. No one there has gone on hunger strike and the actions of the Iraqi forces were not coincidental. Every action had taken place under the direct order of the National Security Advisor. The issue is over the siege and establishment of control over a building in which hundreds are housed. Moreover, on the day the standoff began, the PMOI informed the Iraqi forces and the commanders of the US forces both verbally and in writing that if Iraqi forces truly require a building, they would be willing to immediately build such a building for them and bear all the costs. Furthermore, the PMOI have at every opportunity provided assistance to the Iraqi protection unit, and American commanders are well aware and have personally witness this.
11- After foreign media outlets belatedly reported about the restrictions and suppression of Ashraf residents, Mr. Rubaie suddenly spoke of a huge propaganda campaign by the PMOI. He said that it is “necessary to stop the propaganda campaign against the Iraqi government”. The National Security Adviser seems to have forgotten that since December 2008, to please the Iranian regime, it was he who violated international conventions and began a dirty psychological war against the residents of Ashraf despite the fact that the residents and the PMOI had not reciprocated. These actions have continued unabated to this day and he could face prosecution on various counts.
12- In order to remove any ambiguity, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the coalition which encompasses the PMOI and every resident of Ashraf, repeatedly reiterated that no one other than the dictatorship ruling Iran has a feud with the Ashraf residents. Democratic and nationalist Iraqi forces have quite rightly reiterated that anyone who seeks the expulsion of the PMOI from Iraq does not represent the interests of Iraq and rather represents the benefits of the Iranian regime. Similarly, the residents of Ashraf have no feud with anyone other than the barbaric mullahs ruling Iran. They have no enmity towards Mr. al-Rubaie personally or towards any other Iraqi official, and, as they have often said, they have the greatest respect for the independence of the Iraqi government and have extended their full cooperation with this government. The residents of Ashraf are simply defending their basic and fundamental rights under the international covenants and regulations which, at the request of the religious fascism ruling Iran, are at present being trampled upon by the National Security Adviser.
The fundamental rights of Ashraf residents are not up for negotiations nor can anyone be allowed to violate them. The vast majority of the Iranian and Iraqi people, religious figures, politicians, intellectuals, and freedom-loving people across the world, from Palestine to Egypt, and from Jordan and Europe to the U.S., Canada and Australia, stand in solidarity with Ashraf for these rights be brought about.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
March 20, 2009
